# Greyhound awareness! -Animal lovers welcome-



## GreenIcyEnvy (Sep 18, 2012)

Hey! No ranting here just honestly wanted to post a new thread that may help anyone thinking about getting a dog. I'm specifically promoting Greyhounds in my post but pets can make a huge turn around in your life in such a positive way! Such unconditional love! Even if Greyhounds aren't your breed may I suggest *really *considering rescuing? There are tons of animals in rescue shelters waiting to be taken home. Anyone who is thinking about a larger breed dog however keep reading and I'll inform you on my experience so far with my own Greyhound. If you have any rescue stories of your own, or advice for pet owners or soon to be pet owners please share!!!!!





This is Mariachi. We (my boyfriend and I) call her Mare for short. She is 7 years old. We adopted her when she was 4. She lived in Florida and was used for racing. She has tatoos in her ears by which we can go online and see where she raced, who, what place she got (5th was her best) If she was a great racer, they would have kept her for mass breeding. She was not however and thankfully passed a test which saved her life. She was healthy and friendly enough that she could be adopted out. However thousands (yes thousands) are killed each year. Some states have banned the tracks, some have not.

Not all tracks are bad!!!!!  There are a few very reputable tracks which take terrific care of their dogs. But there are many more which treat the dogs horribly. Going as far as drugging the dogs to rig races. A man a saw recently at a Greyhound event had this cutie black and white greyhound with horrible scarring around the neck. He continued to tell me an awful story of when he was in Spain about a year ago when he saw the dog he was walking hung on a tree. Realizing the dog was still alive, cut the rope and saved this greyhound. Here, the owner was using the dog for hunting and since the dog was getting old had no use for him anymore and hung him on the tree to die. There was no law against this where they were. I was so happy to see the greyhound so happy and healthy!!





I had no idea how many different shades Greyhounds come as, and apparently the actualy "blue" or "grey" Greyhounds are actually more rare. Mariachi here is considered to be red, and actually have been asked by little kids if she's part deer!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

They are white and black and some amazing brindle patterns. Mariachi is about 63lbs of lean muscle and can run about 35mph now, but at her peak could have ran about 45mph!  





*WARNING: *Huge couch potatos!!!!!!  After getting their walk or run in they will just basically lay around the house all day. Mare will steal all the blankets for herself. She is also not very good with other breeds of dog! This is not uncommon when getting a Greyhound, after all they only grow up usually with other Greyhounds. Smaller dogs will tend to look like rabbits to them haha!

So there is a TON more that can be said about Greyhounds and my adorable girl, but I'll leave the thread open to some discussion. Want to keep this positive so please voice your input about your experiences. Also any Greyhound specific questions you'd like to ask me, go for it and i'll try to answer the best I can.

Have a beautiful day everyone!


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## Dalylah (Sep 18, 2012)

She is beautiful and I am 100% behind the adopting of animals. Most animals in shelters are there because someone couldn't afford them anymore or someone went to jail.  Some of my favorite pets have been rescue babies.


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## Dragonfly (Sep 18, 2012)

My husband and I got a greyhound from a Rhode Island track in 1992. At the time we lived in Ottawa.

Her name was Tanya and she was a very sweet girl.

At the time greyhounds were a novelty and she got attention where ever we went.

We had to teach her several things like how to walk up/down stairs and how to not run from us when she got off her leash.

A few of our neighbours would take her for long runs, which she really loved.

My son was a baby - he had a few stuffed animals in his crib.

I kept finding them in the spare room, where Tanya liked to sleep.

Once I saw her quietly pulling a toy through the crib bars - then she took it to her room.

Another quirk - she loved to lie in front of our huge dresser mirror that we had leaned against the wall - and bark at it occaisionally. We truly believed that she thought she was with real dog.

Unfortunately we had to relocate to a city across Canada so we couldn't take her with us.

She found a new home with a woman that had Italian greyhounds, so she was well educated with sight hounds.


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## mizjmakeup (Sep 21, 2012)

*Sooo cute! I love dogs so much. They are like the best. *

*I definatly like the idea of adopting and rescuing dogs. *

*All those babies need love and a home! *


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## suenotto (Sep 23, 2012)

I have 4 rescued greyhounds. Otto was our first dog (thus my name "sue-n-otto")

Otto is now 14 1/2 (we got him when he was 3)

Lily is 15 1/2 (she was returned to the group after 5 years in a home, she's been with us since she was 7)

Edie was 4 when she came to us and she died of bone cancer just shy of her 12th birthday. I still think about her every day.

Wilma and Trixie came after Edie died. Wilma is the "puppy" of the house, at 5 years old. Trixie was a fantastic racer who became a brood mama. After her time at the breeding farm, she came to us. She's now 9 years old.

We have ducks and chickens too, and believe it or not, all the dogs behave around the birds.(keeping them from eating the bird shit is another matter..




)


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